The struggling South African public broadcaster has approved "shocking" staff salary increases of between 5% and 6% as other media houses are firing staff and shutting their doors permanently.
The City Press newspaper on Sunday reported that government insiders described the SABC salary increases as "shocking" and saying that the National Treasury will likely not approve the move from the financially struggling broadcaster that is technically insolvent.
The SABC salary increase for staffers come 6 months after another R2.1 billion bailout for the struggling corporation was approved by the country's government.
In the week Associated Media Publishing that published magazines like Cosmopolitan, House & Leisure, Good Housekeeping, Goeie Huishouding and Women on Wheels became the latest South African media house to announce its shocking closure on 1 May 2020 because of the growing Covid-19 pandemic. AMP was started in 1982 by Jane Raphaely.
The Mail & Guardian newspaper is struggling to stay afloat while staffers at the Independent Media group has been told their salaries are being cut.
The SABC has reported staggering losses for an ongoing number of years, made worse by corruption, with another record loss expected for the 2020/2021 financial year.
Since June 2019 the SABC said it became a monthly struggle to pay its own staffers and that it was no longer paying all other service providers like external production companies. For several months the SABC simply didn't pay producers for content made and delivered or Sentech for signal distribution and even had months of not paying for electricity.
A government insider who told City Press that the South African public broadcaster "would most likely return to government with a begging bowl within months".
The SABC said that the R2.1 bailout money wasn't being used for SABC salary increases but is part of a 3-year negotiated agreement with labour unions for the period of 2018 to 2020.
"In April 2018 the SABC board approved a 3-year settlement with organised labour for the period of 2018 to 2020," says Madoda Mxakwe, SABC CEO.
"This included an increase to management of 1% lower than the bargaining unit. The bargaining unit increase percentage increase was a conservative 5% and 6% respectively."
"These projected increases were included in the respective approved corporate plans over the period. The percentage increases were substantially less than in the past 10 years preceding this agreement, when increases ranged mostly between 8% and 11.5%," says Madoda Mxakwe.
"The bailout funds were not used for these increases. They have been ring-fenced and utilised for the priority areas that were identified with the shareholder and Treasury."
